Sunday, August 9, 2009

thugs and health policy

Missing the point: Facing down the gangs disrupting her Town Hall on health reform last week with cries against the "government takeover," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius responded, "But this isn't a single payer plan!"

Single payer advocates, recognizing that our gold standard cannot pass this year, taunt supporters of a public plan for saying that our gold standard cannot pass this year.

Meanwhile, the economic stagnation that gripped the poor in the 1990s and never let up is nipping at the heels of the middle class. The financial and housing meltdowns are taking place at a time when countervailing forces to corporate power are hard to find. Private sector unionization rates hover at about 7.6% (the public sector is over 40%; 16 million of America's 130 million wage workers belong to a union).

The public may be favorably disposed toward a public health plan, but probably fewer than 100 can describe how it would work, when it would start (2013), or what it would mean to them personally (would likely help). Meanwhile, right wing blogs and the Republican party are succeeding in whipping up fury on an issue even wonks think of as arcane. Let's assume most of these people are operatives, as were the Bush v. Gore mobs in 2000. The point is, they have organized, well-funded leaders, with a stake in the direction of this wobbly nation and our increasingly ethereal economy.

Maybe we need to rethink the conversation we need to be thinking about.